“Haikus for Jews,” the recently published second book by lawyer-turned-writer David M. Bader, is a collection of nearly 100 haikus, written in the classic, 17-syllable style, that light-heartedly pokes fun at various Jewish concerns and neuroses.

And with such haikus from the book as “The shivah visit –/so sorry for your loss. Now/back to my problems” and “Today I am a/man. Tomorrow I return/to the seventh grade” being furiously e-mailed across the Net, the book has garnered a virtual (and real) following.

The 40-year-old Bader, who earned degrees from Harvard College and Harvard Law School and later traded in five and half years of drafting legal documents for writing humor books, says he came up with the idea for the book during the “Zen trend” of the mid-’90s, having noticed the irony of “urban neurotic Jews gravitating to nature and tranquillity.” Plus, Bader adds, “‘Sonnets for Jews’ didn’t have the same ring to it.”

The Jewish haiku — like the Japanese poem, which dates back to the 15th century — writes Bader, “combines the simplicity and elegance of Asian art with the irritability and impatience of Jewish kvetching.”

In fact, the author cites such influences as large quantities of saki, bad sushi — and his parents. “In a household where I was constantly interrupted, you learn to be brief,” says the author, whose last book was “How to Be an Extremely Reform Jew.”

Though publishers passed on the “Haikus” proposal a few years ago, a literary agent suggested they try pitching the poetry book again. Not long after that, the book was sold and Bader began four months of haiku writing.

He says his favorites are those that touch on nature, like true Japanese haikus. To wit: “The sparkling blue sea/beckons me to wait one hour/after my sandwich” and “Wet moss on the old/stone path — flat on my back, I/ponder whom to sue.”